Points for one, travel for two

What do we do when we only have enough points to cover one of our flights?

There are times when we deliberately transfer our points (typically from Chase Ultimate Rewards) to United with a specific destination in mind and knowing the exact amount of miles we need. There are other times, however, when we realize we have enough for at least a one-way ticket to a domestic destination through our regular accrual of United miles from flights paid for in cash (credit card), the United MileagePlus X app, and the United Shopping Portal. With round-trip tickets from O’Hare as low as 15,000 miles to select U.S. cities (benefits of being based in a hub), we’d be crazy not to take advantage of the miles piling up!

But you only have enough miles for one person…

You’re right, that’s the point of the post. And since we like to travel together, we’re willing to pay for one flight and use miles for the other for certain trips. Due to work travel, P2 has been able to achieve United Gold status the last few years thanks to work and personal travel. That means he earns 8x miles per dollar for every flight. I (P1) achieved Silver status last year but have some years where I don’t reach any status at all. Silver earns 7 miles per dollar on every flight and regular MileagePlus members without status earn only 5 miles per dollar.

Because of this, we will pay for P2’s flight with cash (credit card) to earn the maximum miles per dollar and use the United miles to cover my flight.

In January, we flew to Phoenix to spend a long weekend in Scottsdale. We used miles to cover my flight and paid for P2’s flight with his United credit card. The flight was $263, so we earned 2,104 United miles for future travel. Had we paid for my flight and not P2’s, we would have only earned 1,841. And, if it had been a year where I didn’t even have Silver, we would have only gotten 1,315 for the same flight.

Summary

If nobody has status, this advice doesn’t apply. But if once of you does, however, it’s worth making sure you’re earning every last mile.